Haptic Touch Will Gain Big Upgrades in Future Versions of iOS

Apple is planning on expanding the number of places in iOS that you can use Haptic Touch, a new alternative to 3D Touch found on the iPhone XR.

Unlike 3D Touch, which requires additional sensors in the display to allow for pressure sensing, Haptic Touch is simply a standard long press with haptic feedback attached to it.

It’s the iPhone XR’s substitute for 3D Touch, which was killed off due to engineering difficulties and ultimately to save on costs.

What’s the Issue?

But Haptic Touch is not a perfect alternative to 3D Touch. At launch, it’s only available in a couple places on the iPhone XR’s version of iOS 12 — like the flashlight in Control Center and the Camera shortcut on the Lock screen.

That won’t be the case forever, it seems. The Verge’s in-depth review of the iPhone XR, written by Nilay Patel, reveals that Apple has plans to expand the number of places where Haptic Touch can be used.

“Apple told me it’s working to bring it to more places in iOS over time, but that it’s going slow to make sure the implementation is right,” Patel wrote.

Learn More: 19 Awesome Things You Can Do with 3D Touch on iPhone

Along with limited implementation, Haptic Touch has one big drawback when compared to 3D Touch: it can only be used in functions that don’t already rely on a long press.

For example, long pressing on an app will bring up the “wiggle mode” that allows users to rearrange or delete apps.

Death of 3D Touch?

It will also interesting to see how Haptic Touch implementation plays out amidst rumors of 3D Touch’s eventual disappearance.

Back in August, Barclays reported that it is “widely understood” in the supply chain that the 2018 iPhone lineup (specifically the iPhone XS and XS Max) will be the last to sport 3D Touch.

However, the plans are not finalized. The report indicates that the feature “may appear” in future iPhones, or it “may not.” Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also made a similar prediction back in April.

3D Touch has long been a hit-or-miss capability of iOS. While many users love the intuitive feature, just as many others don’t use it, or aren’t even aware that it exists.